Wesley Medical Research

Wesley Medical Research Institute aims to be a recognised leader in research methodologies which improve patient outcomes.

Wesley Medical Research aims to make an immediate and lasting difference to healthcare practices through medical research.

The combined Institute was formed in 2014, following the merge between The Wesley Research Institute and St Andrew’s Medical Institute. As a result, it now operates across all four UnitingCare Health hospitals in Queensland.

Wesley Medical Research refines the methodologies behind the clinical practice with the intent of developing performance standards and methods to inform clinician-led change to ensure the best patient results.

Close collaboration between UnitingCare Health specialists, researchers and academia has developed a clear scientific emphasis on practical, applied research focussing on health services and clinical audit.

What They Do
Wesley Medical Research is committed to developing an integrated clinical performance system for optimising medical treatment, enabling patients to quickly return to the best possible quality of life. This includes:

Creating performance standards and using actual procedural data in clinician-led research, to derive new benchmarks for patients’ treatment and results.

Collaborating with leading medical, academic and industry partners to devise innovative education and change management strategies which translate to better results for patients.

Clinician-Led Research Projects and Clinical Trials
Wesley Medical Research can assist with the development of research projects and clinical trials (both investigator-initiated and externally-sponsored) including the conduct of literature reviews, refining research questions, study design, statistical analysis and the full publication process.

The institute can also help to obtain the formal ethical and governance approvals that are necessary for research projects and clinical trials involving UnitingCare Health's patients.

Tracking Clinical Outcomes
Wesley Medical Research research has resulted in the development of powerful methods to support clinicians in developing measures to track the most relevant aspects of their treatments and their patients’ outcomes.
Regularly comparing these measures with published best practice can allow the doctors and the care team to identify changes or differences in either practice or outcomes – and exploit these as opportunities for review and improvement of the outcomes.

Using Wesley Medical Research methodologies and expertise, ​UnitingCare Health's clinical units can focus on delivering the highest level of care and outcomes for all patients.